Vestiges of ancient manners and customs, discoverable in modern Italy and Sicily / By the Rev. John James Blunt.

  • Blunt, John J. (John James), 1794-1855.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of ancient manners and customs, discoverable in modern Italy and Sicily / By the Rev. John James Blunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    who would think it an act of dangerous con- sequences to turn a deaf ear to the craving Franciscan, whilst he shakes his alms-box, and solicits charity for the souls in purgatory, the church, or the Madonna. Further; of all the monasteries in Italy and Sicily, none so much abound with relics to captivate the vulgar as those of the mendi- cant orders. This too was a stratagem to which the priests of Isis had recourse in the same degree; and the reason is manifest, the superstitious regard of the common people was to be conciliated by them for the same purpose as it is now to be courted by their successors, for a maintenance. ‘Thus it was given out, that Isis gathered up the four- teen pieces into which her husband’s body had been torn by Typhon, and that she buried each of them separately in the spot where it was found; a circumstance which served to explain the variety of places of burial assigned to Osiris in Egypt. ‘Some,